Study.. Diabetes Drug Improves Heart Health and Reduces the Risk of Blood Clots

A scientific study published in the journal Clinical Investigation and conducted by researchers at the University of Michigan has identified a potential mechanism explaining how sotagliflozin, marketed under the brand name Inpefa and used to treat diabetes and heart failure, may help reduce the formation of blood clots responsible for heart attacks and strokes.

The findings suggest that the benefits of this medication extend beyond simply lowering blood sugar levels, as it may also help prevent excessive platelet activation, which can lead to blood vessel blockages.

Sotagliflozin works by inhibiting two proteins, SGLT1 and SGLT2, which are involved in glucose reabsorption. To evaluate its effectiveness, researchers compared it with empagliflozin (Jardiance), a medication that inhibits only the SGLT2 protein.

The results showed that sotagliflozin significantly reduced platelet activation in both healthy individuals and patients with type 2 diabetes, demonstrating considerably greater effectiveness than empagliflozin.

In experiments conducted on mice, sotagliflozin reduced blood clot formation by 60%, compared with a reduction of only 5% to 10% for the medication used as a comparison.

Researchers also found that genetically removing the SGLT1 protein from mouse platelets reduced blood clot formation by 40%. This finding confirms the protein’s central role, although it does not fully explain all the effects of the medication.

The research team believes that additional mechanisms may contribute to preventing blood clot formation, including the potential involvement of SGLT1 proteins found in the cells lining the inner walls of blood vessels.

This discovery could pave the way for the development of new treatments capable of preventing blood clots without increasing the risk of bleeding.

The researchers now plan to seek approval for further studies to evaluate the medication’s effects in patients with chronic kidney disease and atrial fibrillation.

However, they emphasized that the findings are currently based on laboratory experiments and animal studies. Therefore, they do not provide definitive evidence that sotagliflozin directly prevents heart attacks or strokes in humans.

Further clinical trials will be necessary before the medication can be approved for these purposes.